The metallic chime of gold coins as they dropped one by one into a traitor's hand. The dull click of a pawn set upon a board. War, famine, dynastic marriage. All part of the game the powerful played with lives and blood and pain. To nine-year-old Alkesra iddri-Lant, the greatest darkness in her life was the absence of her father. Gone for most of her young life, his disappearance meant his beautiful Eldiron wife and two young children were...